The Wild Episode

The Antarctic Krill is one of the most numerous animals on Earth, probably responsible for the biggest single species aggregations you can find nowadays. So numerous, in fact, that its surprising connection to Antarctic sea ice is just one of the ways it's bound into global climatic systems, carbon cycling and flows of energy and matter ...   Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Ambient Dream, Nightmare Designs and Dark Awakening by malictusmusic, CC BY 4.0 SCP-x2x and Symmetry by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0

The tentacled snake is one of the most unmistakable snakes in the world. And the story of how its tentacles connect to its extraordinary hunting strategy involves two letters: 'J' and 'C'. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: New Year's Loops by Correspondence, CC BY 3.0, Wants To Know by Bodysurfer, CC BY 3.0, Piano Soundtrack 1 by Gurdonark, CC BY 3.0

The Mediterranean Monk Seal is probably the rarest pinniped in the world. It's had almost everything thrown at it - by us and by Nature - and survived, just, in part by changing its own behaviour. At some point, left with no alternative, it went into hiding. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Realization, Breath and On A Blimp by Kirk Osamayo, CC BY 4.0. Bittersweet and Suonatore di Liuto by Kevin Macleod, CC BY 3.0.

The São Tomé Caecilian is a fantastic creature: an extremely yellow legless amphibian living in the soil on a single volcanic island. An extraordinary example of an already extraordinary group of animals. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Minor With Cricket and Second Nature by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0 and Dizzy Spells - Instrumental by Josh Woodward. CC BY 4.0.

Something very weird goes on in mating assemblies of the White-barred Acraea butterfly - males and females swap roles. Why? And what can it tell us about a secret natural force shaping whole populations of insects? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Headway, modum and periculum by Kai Engel, CC BY 4.0

Whirling Disease in fish is caused by a tiny parasite. But what is that parasite and just how tiny is tiny? The answers will astound you! Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: On The Highway, Age, Angled Insight and Unforeseen Space by Unheard Music Concepts, CC BY 4.0

The Megamouth Shark is one of the biggest, yet least known, least understood, sharks in the world. Not entirely surprising, since we've only known it exists for about fifty years ...  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Desert Archer, Hot Soup on Cold Days, Coffee and Time and Homesick by Pipe Choir III. CC BY 4.0.

Just a quick update on the podcast, and a quick look forward to 2023!  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

The Vampire Jumping Spider feeds - in part - on blood. Often, human blood. But how it does it makes it one of the most extraordinary spiders in the world ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Wax by Nctrnm, CC BY 3.0; Murmur, Leer and Ah! by Mystery Mammal, CC BY 4.0

The Vampire Squid is not really a vampire, nor is it really a squid. It's the last survivor of an ancient lineage that has arrived in the present with an astonishing array of adaptations that equip it to live in a place most other animals can only visit ... the oxygen minimum zone. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. The Long Journey, Gone, It's A Mystery and How I Used To See The Stars by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 3.0

The Corsac Fox is a small, elegant fox of Central Asia, Mongolia and China - a huge range, most of which it shares with four other animals that loom large in its life: red fox, golden eagle, marmots and, inevitably ... humans.  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Mastoom Mastoom/Asmar Asmar, Drum Solo and Fidayda by Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road, CC BY 4.0 

The Neon Flying Squid is one of those animals that lives up to its cool name: a squid that can actually fly. And we're not talking just gliding - time to talk jets and rockets ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Wonder Cycle, Your Journey Is Resuming Now and It Takes a Lot to Keep a Figure Like This, by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 3.0

The most numerous purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica is almost certainly the nematode worm Scottnema lindsayae. An astonishingly resilient little creature that goes places almost no other animal can, and probably rides the wind to get there ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Iced Spring Theme and The Fall by Peter Rudenko, CC BY 4.0 and CC BY 3.0 respectively.

The Red-Crowned Crane is a hugely charismatic, properly iconic bird, with symbolic importance in much Asian art, culture and myth. So here's me trying, in a way, to use it as a symbol of something else ... the state of the natural world, for want of a better description ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Kindling, Goldfinch: Flight to the North and Reservoir Sunsnset by Axletree, CC BY 4.0

The Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator) is one of the biggest, most impressive and fearsome-looking scorpions in the world. So why is it described online as '... very good with children ...'? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Sad Marimba Planet and What's Behind The Door by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 3.0

To fill an unanticipated, COVID-related gap in the schedule, this is a rebroadcast of an episode from the first year of the podcast - one that mysteriously became unavailable in the podcast feed a while back. Hopefully it sticks around this time, though no promises since I don't know what went wrong with it the first time round. The northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) is one of the commonest seabirds in the North Atlantic, and a true master of the air. But most importantly for this episode, it is a central character in the story of how, for centuries, a village of perhaps two hundred people survived in one of Britain's most isolated, bleak locations ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Bloom (Instrumental) and Fight the Sea (Instrumental) by Josh Woodward. CC BY 4.0. The Return by nisei23. CC BY 3.0. In A Moment and Reflections by Lee Rosevere. CC BY 3.0. Field Recording of fulmars by neilg. CC BY 3.0

The Pig-Nosed Turtle of New Guinea and northern Australia really does have a pig-like nose. But this is one of the most unusual, distinctive turtles in the world, so there's a whole lot more going on than just that ...  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Quizitive and Everywhere by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 3.0

Fenyes's strepsipteran (Caenocholax fenyesi) is one of the most extraordinary insects in the world. A parasitoid living a deeply strange life - twice over, in fact, since males and females both get up to some remarkable stuff but are wildly different in both form and behaviour ...  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

The Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) is one of four living horseshoe crab species (probably, marginally, the biggest). Animals that have survived, superficially very little changed, for hundreds of millions of years. They've come through multiple mass extinctions, but are still facing new and unexpected challenges today ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Modum by Kai Engel, CC BY 3.0, Another Version of You and An Extraordinary Camera Was Custom Built and Used Only Once by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 3.0

Colugos (often called, entirely inaccurately, flying lemurs) - there are two officially recognised species at the moment - are more dramatically and completely adapted to gliding than any other mammal. They've essentially turned their entire bodies into one big gliding surface. Extraordinary animals which also, as it happens, have extraordinary teeth ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Another Brilliant Age and The Last Whale by Jelsonic. CC BY 4.0.

First in a series of listener-suggested shows! The Wasp Mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea) is a stunning little insect with some amazing stuff going on. Mimicry, convergent evolution, phoresy, egg predation, hypermetamorphosis and much, much more.  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

The Great Slaty Woodpecker (Mulleripicus pulverulentus) is probably the biggest woodpecker in the world. A spectacular inhabitant of Asian forests that's haunted, perhaps, by the ghosts of two even bigger woodpeckers ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: What Have You Done and Small Steps by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 3.0

The Greater Argonaut (Argonauta argo) is a very unusual octopus, that travels the oceans in an exquisite papery case. And many of its secrets were uncovered by a very unusual (for her time) woman - the remarkable Jeanne Villepreux-Power - one of the 19th century's leading scientifically-minded naturalists. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: Hey Ruth Instrumental Version, Pompeii No Vocals, The Pawnbroker's Stepdaughter Instrumental Version and Bloom Instrumental Version by Josh Woodward, CC BY 4.0

The Stoplight Loosejaw (Malacosteus niger) is a pretty extraordinary fish: a jet-black denizen of the twilight zone, armed with some of the strangest and most spectacular jaws in the animal kingdom and a surprising superpower: it's one of the very, very few creatures down there that can both generate and see red light. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: Oxygen Garden, Perhaps It Was Not Properly Manufactured, CGI Snake and Divider by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0

The Giant Hummingbird (Patagona gigas) is, by a long way, the biggest hummingbird in the world. It's about twice the size of the next biggest hummingbird - the most extreme version of a kind of animal that's already pretty extreme ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: It's a Jazz Thing by Smiling Cynic, CC BY 3.0 Dead From The Beginning, Alive Till The End by Doctor Turtle, CC BY 3.0

The African Death's-Head Hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos) is a big, striking moth loaded with grim symbolism and superstition. But we're mostly interested in its very unusual vocal abilities, its very unusual diet, and its surprising connection to ... potatoes. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: Slide Rule by Gurdonark, CC BY 3.0 Recording of Acherontia styx, Natural History Museum Sound Archive via wikimedia/bio.acousti.ca, CC BY 3.0

The Armadillo Lizard has a fantastic scientific name - Ouroborus cataphractus - which connects it to ancient mystical symbolism and ancient heavy cavalry. In fact, it shows that in Nature, everything's connected. Everything in this case being armour, speed, sociability, predators, prey, climate, geology. And a high speed police pursuit.  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: Wants To Know by Bodysurfer, CC BY 4.0

The Nemertean egg predator Carcinonemertes errans may be the most patient, persistent and committed predator ever covered on the podcast. A tiny marine worm that lives, in huge numbers, only on the exoskeleton of the Dungeness crab, and feeds on only one thing: crab eggs. Millions upon millions of crab eggs. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: The Meadow, The Jewel and Me, I Dare You and Procreation by Little Glass Men, CC BY 4.0

The Black-Headed Duck is the only duck that's a brood parasite: it lays its eggs in the nests of other species. But unlike every other bird in the world that does this, it causes its host species negligible harm - because of what its ducklings do as soon as they hatch ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: Driving Through Tunnels, Call Me and Blue Lobster by Daniel Birch, CC BY 4.0 Quiet The Mind Instrumental by Mr. Pepino, CC BY 3.0 Let's Start At The Beginning by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 3.0

The Orca (Orcinus orca) is one of the most famous animals on the planet - but there is some very unusual and kind of mysterious stuff going on with orcas, and a lot of it may be connected to their astonishing predatory abilities ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: It's Always Too Late to Start Over, Let Your Enemies Feel The Weight of Your Burdens, That Kid in Fourth Grade Who Really Liked the Denver Broncos, Perhaps It Was Not Properly Manufactured and God Be With You Till We Meet Again by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0  

The Rakali, aka the Australian Water-Rat, (Hydromys chrysogaster) is a pretty remarkable rodent. A carnivorous, semi-aquatic rodent that's native to Australia: a bit like the Australian version of an otter, it seems to be better than many Australian predators at dealing with the invasion of the poisonous cane toads ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. plus modified versions of: Acoustic Guitar 1 by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Know No No-Nos, Jolenta Clears the Table and Today's Special – Jam Tomorrow by Doctor Turtle, CC BY 4.0  

The Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis platurus) is probably the most widespread snake in the world and, arguably, the most marine of all living marine reptiles. It has cut all ties with the land, and mastered an environment no other sea snake quite has: the open ocean. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Iced Spring Theme, Slow Motion, Aug 12, The Fall, What Follows Me by Peter Rudenko, CC BY 4.0 Prelude No 1, Prelude No 6 by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0   

Electric eels (three species, in the genus Electrophorus) are famous animals, and have been for centuries. That doesn't mean they've given up all their secrets to science, though: recent research has revealed they're even more extraordinary than we knew. Plus: how to use horses as bait when fishing. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

The European Beewolf (Philanthus triangulum) is a big, striking wasp. A specialist predator of honeybees, with many tricks up its sleeve: chemical and biological warfare tricks, including symbiotic bacteria, embalming and poison gas. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Danse Macabre - No Violin, Vanishing and When The Wind Blows by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 3.0. www.thewildepisode.com

The Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is the biggest invertebrate on Earth - a truly enormous mollusc that weighs as much as a bull moose. Yet much about it remains deeply mysterious. It is a hidden wonder of Nature, hidden away deep in the Antarctic Ocean ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Spatium by Keys of Moon, CC BY 3.0. Light Lab, Treated Acoustic Guitar and End of WInter by Rest You Sleeping Giant, CC BY 4.0. Abyss by Myuu, CC BY 3.0 www.thewildepisode.com

The olm (Proteus anguinus) is a very unusual animal: a large cave salamander, with an extraordinary life and an interesting history of research, that comes in (at least) two very different forms: the white olm and the black. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Ah by Mystery Mammal, CC BY 4.0. Disintegration and Silent Turmoil by Myuu, CC BY 3.0. They Call It Nature and Raise Your Hand If You Think Evil Is Increasing In This World by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0 www.thewildepisode.com

The Madison Cave Isopod is a small aquatic crustacean living an extraordinary subterranean life: not in underground rivers, but in the groundwater. In the aquifer.  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: I Should Have Been More Human, We Were Never Meant To Live Here and Stories About The World That Once Was by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0. www.thewildepisode.com

The Oilbird is a bird not quite like any other: first described by one of history's greatest naturalist-explorers, it is a cave-nesting nocturnal fruit-eater, whose nestlings had the misfortune to become a valuable fuel source for humans ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: Saying Goodbye in the Rain (string), Saying Goodbye in the Rain (piano), No Doubt, Darkling Skies and Lost Star by Jelsonic, CC BY 4.0. www.thewildepisode.com

Eleonora's Falcon is a very elegant, very unusual bird of prey. It nests in big colonies on Mediterranean Islands, and on one of those islands may have been the first bird in the world to get specific legal protection. But here's the main question: why, unlike almost any other bird, does it breed not in the Spring or Summer, but in the Autumn? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. www.thewildepisode.com

The Greater Noctule bat is Europe's biggest bat, but also probably its most mysterious and least studied. In the last twenty years, though, remarkable details of its life have come to light. Such as: it's one of the very few bats in the world that is a major predator of birds ...  Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. The Return by nisei23 (CC BY 3.0) and Electric Commando by Ian Alex Mac (CC BY 4.0). www.thewildepisode.com

The purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) was only described by scientists in 2003. Naturalists actually knew about it - knew a little about it - way back in the early 20th century, but its existence had been kind of forgotten. And even now, we don't know much more than a little about it. But what we do know is enough to make it a pretty remarkable frog ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Recordings of purple frogs calling are by Thomas A, Suyesh R, Biju S, Bee M, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. www.thewildepisode.com

Cannibals on the march ... The Mormon Cricket (Anabrus simplex), which is found across western North America, is prone to outbreaks: the mass movement of millions upon millions of insects. And what happens within those outbreaks, inside the vast crowd, is pretty brutal ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Night Caves, Wandering, Reflections, Gone and The Nightmare by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 3.0  www.thewildepisode.com

Labord's Chameleon (Furcifer labordi) may look like just another chameleon, albeit a small one. But it isn't. In one crucial respect, it is one of the most unusual animals on Earth. Virtually unique among tetrapods, in fact ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Magnet and Leer by Mystery Mammal, CC BY 4.0 Rewound, Another Version of You and Candlepower by Chris Zabriskie. CC BY 4.0. www.thewildepisode.com   www.thewildepisode.com

The Lowland Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus) is a small, worm-eating mammal from Madagascar. It has yellow stripes, a shared evolutionary history with elephants and sociable inclinations. It also has spines, and it does something with them that no other mammal can do ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. www.thewildepisode.com

Moths for Halloween! If you can drink nectar, or fruit juice, as many moths do, you can drink other kinds of liquids too. Such as ... the bodily fluids of other animals. Up to and including the one that earns you the name ... vampire. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. www.thewildepisode.com

The loricifera are a group of microscopic animals that, despite being abundant and widespread in marine sediments, no-one knew existed until the late 20th century. Once they were discovered, it soon became clear they are very, very unusual: including in one specific way that makes them unlike any other animal on Earth ... Thanks to Jack Wilkinson for research assistance with this episode! Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of the following pieces: Dark November #2, Dark November #4, Dark November #6, Adaptation and Admiration by Wayne Kinos. CC BY 4.0 www.thewildepisode.com

The bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis) may not look out of the ordinary (apart from its big ears) but it is. Known as the only insectivorous dog in the world, it has the most teeth and the probably the fastest jaw of any wild dog. It also has a very unusual way of going about the business of raising the next generation ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of the following pieces: Rotisserie Graveyard, It Looks Like the Future but it Feels Like the Past, Kiss Inflation and The Ants Built a City on his Chest by Doctor Turtle. CC BY 4.0 www.thewildepisode.com

The Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens) may look like just another dragonfly, but it is in fact one of the more remarkable insects on Earth, undertaking some of the most extraordinary journeys in the entire animal kingdom ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music by Audionautix and Mystery Mammal and Siddhartha and Chris Zabriskie and Peter Rudenko. All licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. www.thewildepisode.com

The Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is Nature's greatest bonebreaker and bone-eater, and it uses two very different tools to make that possible: gravity and acid. It also has a somewhat mysterious but apparently significant relationship with iron oxide ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music by Audionautix and Bert Alink and Unheard Music Concepts and Damiano Baldoni.  All licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. www.thewildepisode.com

The glacier ice worm Mesenchytraeus solifugus might look unremarkable, but it is an extraordinary animal. Above all, it's extraordinary in where it lives: on and in glaciers. It is one of a tiny handful of non-microscopic animals that can not only tolerate but require glacial ice to survive ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music by Audionautix and Daniel Birch and Meydän.  All licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. www.thewildepisode.com

The Greater Honeyguide (Indicator indicator) is famous for its extraordinary co-operative relationship with humans. Less famous is its ruthlessly destructive relationship with other birds ... Research assistance for this episode by Jack Wilkinson. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music by Audionautix and Damiano Baldoni.  All licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. www.thewildepisode.com